Outfit: Nineties But Nice

I’ve talked a few times about how the 90’s trend that has been doing the rounds the last year or two is not my cup of tea. There isn’t anything wrong with it, per se, it just reminds me all too much of my younger years. I know that probably sounds very patronising, the same way I thought it did when when I was a know-it-all teenager and my Mum told me she used to have platforms just like mine in the 70s, but it’s the truth. I see girls every day wearing chunky mules and strappy slip dresses layered over tees and think they look positively lovely. But on me? Just, no. I wore it all already, and it makes me feel like I look as though I’m trying in vain to hold on to my youth!

But then came this dress. There I was, perusing New Look bikinis ahead of my trip to Morocco, when I saw it. The dress I had when I was about 13. It wasn’t, of course, but it was remarkably similar, and yet better. My favourite dress of all time back then was a typically girly affair. Periwinkle blue with a white ditsy floral print, a double shoulder strap and a skater skirt. It was short and sweet and that classic 90s non-shape and my favourite way to wear it was layered over a white, short sleeved bodysuit because that’s how Jennifer Aniston did. I remember the day I got that dress like it was yesterday – I wore it pretty much every other day, because the way that skirt sun out around me when I twirled made me feel amazing and like I could do anything I wanted to. God knows what happened to it – I have no recollection of parting ways, but I can only imagine it either disintegrated from over-use or someone prised it from my unconscious hands and my mind blocked out the trauma…

And so, something made me instantly want this dress, that was so reminiscent of younger, care-free days but somehow more grown up with it’s midi length hem and buttons (why do buttons make everything better??). I had to work for it though, because everyone else in the world seemed to want this dress and after that first sighting it took some serious trawling across the Midlands and obsessive page refreshing on their website to finally bag one in my size. They had it in several colours, even a denim version, but only the dress of my memories would do, and after a few false starts I finally managed to get it just in time for my holiday! And what a perfect excuse for a first wear it was – as soon as I put it on I was transported back to my younger days and wanted to twirl forever in it.

Which explains the slightly ridiculous photos – soz ’bout that! It wasn’t me, it was the dress!